


Frozen

by peggy_hamilton



Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: F/M, OR IS IT, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-27
Updated: 2020-03-27
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:15:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23342269
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peggy_hamilton/pseuds/peggy_hamilton
Summary: You're Steve's younger sister and in love with Bucky, but you never get the chance to tell him. When Howard Stark wants to test cryogenic freezing you volunteer to be his test subject.
Relationships: Bucky/You, James "Bucky" Barnes/Reader
Kudos: 46





	Frozen

**Author's Note:**

> originally posted on my tumblr justthinkingofwaysofbusses
> 
> original request: Hi,can you please write imagine where Y/N is Steve’s younger sister and she used to hang out with Bucky&Steve. She was really shy and innocent,so she never told Bucky,that she loves him. She was frozen few years after Steve. She helps her brother save Bucky and he’s kinda mesmerized by her, because she’s older, more beautiful and much more confident than he remembers. He realises that he loves her when she nearly dies trying to save his life.(I hope this make sense, English is my 2nd language) - anon

**1938**

You trailed behind Steve and Bucky as they walked ahead of you through the streets of Brooklyn. Steve was your older brother and while you were only a few years younger than him he didn’t like you staying home alone so he always insisted that you came out with him and Bucky, even if they didn’t really talk to you whilst you were out.

Not that you minded, you didn’t have many friends of your own and you had been doing this since the three of you were kids. Hanging out with Steve just on his own was fine, sure he was your older brother but he acted like your best friend. Then there was Bucky, he was always charming and gentlemanly, he was also a secret science nerd when he hung out with you and wasn’t hitting on girls.

You and Bucky got along great when Steve wasn’t around and that was the problem. You had been in love with Bucky for years now even if he didn’t notice, it killed you each time you heard about or saw one of his dates but you didn’t ever say anything. That would ruin it all. How would he feel if he found out that his best friends little sister was in love with him? He’d never look at you again.

So you were fine just being his friend and listening to him talk about science conventions until Steve showed up and you became a third wheel again.

* * *

**1942**

Life had been going fine until Bucky signed up for war and Steve kept trying to. You put on a brave face when Bucky told you, he only told you first because he saw you first on the way to find him, you told him you were happy for him that he would be a sergeant. Inside you were dying.

When the two of you found Steve he was getting beat up behind a cinema, Bucky jumped in to save him and kicked the guy out of the alley. The guy stumbled into you and you squeaked and flinched away from him as he walked off.

You watched Bucky tell Steve the news that he was in the 107th, you gulped. You knew that Steve had wanted to enlist into the 107th since your dad had been in it when he was alive. All three of you left the alley and Bucky told Steve they were going to ‘the future’. You looked over Steve’s shoulder at the pamphlet and saw that it was a science convention.

“Nerd,” you said quietly and shook your head with a smile. Bucky heard you and smirked over at you, you turned your head away to hide the blush on your cheeks.

When you got to the convention Bucky told Steve that he had organised them a double date and your heart sank. Bucky turned to look back at you as if he had forgotten you were, “Oh, Y/N, I uh..didn’t think you’d be here,” he had the decency to look apologetic.

You forced a smile a shook your head, “It’s fine, I don’t mind,” you lied.

Bucky nodded and walked ahead to meet their dates whilst you hung back. Their dates were a pretty blonde and brunette in new dresses and you felt underdressed in your old dress, you knew you weren’t as pretty as the dates Bucky usually had but you had never had to spend a whole evening with them.

All of you crowded in front of a stage where Howard Stark was showing a flying car, you were beyond impressed until the car failed and crashed back down. Still, it was way ahead in new technology.

You stayed to watch the rest of the show and turned around to see both Steve and Bucky had left, suddenly you felt very alone and self conscious and went to go find them. It wasn’t all that hard once you saw that men could enlist here and followed the signs, sure enough there you saw Bucky talking to Steve.

They hugged and Bucky began to walk away, you smiled at him briefly as you jogged past him and straight to Steve. “You’re trying to enlist again?”

Steve sighed, “Yeah, Y/N, I’m sorry. You know I have to do this. I just talked to Bucky don’t–”

“I’m not going to try and stop you,” you cut him off, “I know you need to do this but-, you’re my big brother, okay?” you said softly. “You’re all I have left. If they let you, you have to promise me that you’ll come back alive.”

Steve paused for a moment, “I promise.”

You smiled and pulled him in for a tight hug, “Good, I’ll see you later,” you said into his shoulder then pulled back. “Good luck.”

Steve turned to go enlist and you watched him go before turning back around and straight into Bucky, “You know I ship out tomorrow,” he said. You took a deep breath, you did know and you desperately wished that he wasn’t.

“You wanna come dancing with me and the girls?” You looked behind him at both his and Steve’s date waiting for him excitedly.

Looking back to him you shook your head, “No, I think I’ll go home,” you turned down the offer.

Bucky shrugged, “Alright,” he accepted and began to walk away.

“Bucky wait!” you called after him and ran up to him when he turned around and hugged him tight, “Please be careful,” you whispered into his chest.

You felt him hug you back, “Will do, kid.” After a second you watched him go off to his now two dates and sighed, you didn’t want to go back to your apartment alone so you decided to hang around. There were a few other exhibits around that you had a look at though none of them had been as good as Stark’s flying car.

Speaking of Stark he came to stand right next to you. “What’s a girl like you doing all alone in a place like this,” he gave you a charming smile.

You blushed deeply and looked at the ground as you thought of something to say. “I was here with my brother and his friend but he’s enlisting and his friend went off,” you explained quietly.

Stark scrunched his nose, “And they left you alone?” he tutted. “Allow me to introduce myself, I’m Howard Stark,” he held out his hand.

“Y/N Rogers,” you introduced yourself shyly and shook his hand.

Howard grinned, “Say, Y/N, you wanna come see a real science lab?”

You didn’t ignore the flirty tone in his voice and knew what he was getting at but truth be told you really did want to see a science lab. “Sure,” you accepted shyly.

“Great,” Howard grinned brightly. That was how you got a first look at the lab which would later turn your brother into Captain America, but for that night Howard showed you all the different machines and was surprised by how quickly you caught on to it all.

So he offered you a job working for him, you eagerly accepted. You and Steve needed all the money you could get after all. You met Peggy Carter the next day and you couldn’t help but be intimidated by her confident nature.

You hadn’t seen Steve in days but when you got back to your apartment he had left a letter explaining that he had been recruited. You were happy for him but worried beyond belief so you threw yourself into work.

The next few weeks were spent working alongside Howard so much that you knew every detail of the process to make the serum work, you were working so hard that Peggy had said she would train you how to hold a gun. That it might be useful.

You and her were in a small firing range and the gun felt heavy in your hand. “Are you sure? I don’t need to learn this,” you protested, chewing your lower lip and facing her.

“You can do this, Y/N. I believe in you,” she encouraged.

You took a deep breath and aimed the gun, you shut your eyes tight and unloaded the whole clip. Most of them hit the target, “Very good,” Peggy smiled, “But it can be better. Go again.” She handed you a new fully loaded gun.

Peggy trained you when she was in town, the other time when she was training recruits was spent working with Howard. You were a fast learner and everyone seemed impressed by your work that you got a permanent job with the SSR for the foreseeable future.

* * *

**1945**

You had become one of the SSR’s top agents during the war, while Steve had gone on to sell bonds you had been stationed wherever Howard and Peggy went and worked in the field alongside soldiers.

You had become apart of the Howling Commando’s and helped them on their missions when you were permitted to by your bosses, which was most of the time. You hadn’t been able to deny your feelings for Bucky and even those surrounding you seemed to notice it and tease you. All except him.

But it was all fine until Bucky fell off the train. Steve had been reaching out while hanging half off the train himself and you were watching from the gap in the side of the train knowing that there was nothing you could do to help.

Then Steve went down with the plane and left you alone. You stood over his empty grave next to Bucky’s and let yourself cry. “You promised me you would be safe, now you’re both gone,” you wiped at your tears and left.

You didn’t stop working after that. Peggy worked in an office and Howard was off doing god knows what to find a way to find Steve in the ice. You kept doing field work to take your mind off your loss and before you knew it three years had passed by.

Howard had put finding Steve on hold for the mean time and instead began working on if there was a safe way to unthaw him to keep him alive when he did find him. You thought it was a lost cause but you were willing to try anything. That was why you volunteered to be frozen for an indefinite period of time whilst Howard tried to figure out a way to safely unfreeze you to test if he could do the same for Steve.

Except he didn’t find a way, and you were left to be frozen for another 60 years.

* * *

**2009**

Who knew it would take several decades to find a way to unthaw you? When you came to you realised instantly that you weren’t in the same lab you had been frozen in. It was a lot more advanced and there were no familiar faces. A grey haired man smiled down at you where you lay on a med table.

“I’m Agent Coulson,” the man introduced.

“Y/N Rogers.”

He smiled, “Yes, we know. Welcome to the future, Y/N, it’s 2009.” And if that wasn’t the biggest shock you had ever had in your life.

You had been prepared to be frozen for maybe a few years, Howard had been a brilliant scientist after all, but 61 years frozen? That was way longer than you had expected.

The team that unfroze you had been kind and gentle, you thought they looked a little shocked and confused that you weren’t freaking out but you knew this had been a possibility going in. They had given you new clothes more in keeping with modern times, they consisted of a jumper and some comfy pants that reminded you of the type you wore in the field back in the war.

Currently you were eating across the table from Coulson, “So, it’s 2009?”

“Yes.”

“Why did I only get unfrozen now?”

“Stark’s issue wasn’t unfreezing you, per se. He knew how to do that after you had been frozen for only a few years, except when he did you would have been liquefied. We only just found out how to unfreeze you without you dissolving so we did and here you are.”

You nodded slowly, that seemed acceptable. “Is Howard still alive?”

“No, I’m sorry. He died in a car crash almost 20 years ago.”

“What about Peggy?”

“She is still alive but she is in a home for the elderly.”

“I’d like to see her.”

“Okay.”

You had gone to see Peggy and there had been lots of tears, this was before her Alzheimer’s really set in and her memory wasn’t going every three or so minutes. You slowly found out about how far SHIELD had come, you had been around for the start but it seemed you had missed it’s uprising. You went to see her every week.

Due to your training and experience in the war you became a field agent for SHIELD in Coulson’s team. You settled into the future pretty well, there were no more pressures for women to only learn to cook for men and impress the boys. Around here you were well respected and it really boosted your confidence, as much as you missed Bucky and Steve still you knew that you wouldn’t go back to the ’40s if given the option.

* * *

**2012**

You were a common face around SHIELD, you and Natasha had become quick friends. She reminded you a lot of Peggy back in the day which was why you had sort of forced your friendship on her.

Everything was going fine in your life, it was like you were a different person to whom you were in the 40s and you hardly recognised yourself. It was a good thing though. In fact, everything was going so fine it was expected that something would come to rip through your life.

That thing was them finding Steve’s body. Finally, after seven decades they had found him. You had been one of the first to see him, he was still half in ice but you could see that it was still him. Still the same. He looked no different than the day you last saw him.

You had wanted to be there when he woke up but Fury said that would only shock him. You had relented but what you hadn’t expected was that they were going to put Steve in a faux 40s hospital. You knew Steve wasn’t stupid and he would see right through it, which he did. Evident from the alarms that began blaring throughout the building.

After a few hours of calming Steve down they allowed you inside, he was in a small conference room with his head buried in his arms on the table. “Hey, Steve,” you said softly.

Steve snapped his head up and squinted at you, “Y/N?” he asked confused, standing up and rushing over to you. He pulled you into a bear hug and you hugged him back tightly, it had been too long since you had seen him.

He pulled back to look at you, you knew you must look completely different to when he last saw you. 3 years after he had died in the 40s and another 3 years in the future had let your body mature into that of an adults and you knew that you looked prettier than what you had back then as well. “It’s me,” you confirmed.

“How?”

“Three years after you I was frozen for an experiment, I got unfrozen three years ago in 2009,” you explained.

Steve seemed shocked still at the revelation that you had aged six years without him, you punched him hard on the arm. “That’s for letting the plane go down. You promised you’d come home safe.”

He huffed a laugh and rubbed his arm where you had landed the punch, “It was the only way.”

“I know,” you sighed, “But if you’d given us co-ordinates we could have found you in the 40s,” you punched him again. Steve recoiled back and clutched his arm, you had learned to hit really hard.

“You look so different.”

You shrugged. “I grew up, bro. I’m basically older than you now,” you grinned.

* * *

**2014**

You and Steve began to work as a team after the events with Loki and New York. Steve liked to think he was in charge because he was ‘captain’ but everyone knew it was you who called the shots because whether Steve liked it or not you had six years of experience on him.

The two of you made a good team and you were always assigned on missions together. Then you fought the Winter Soldier and found out it was Bucky. Except he didn’t remember you or Steve. Which, you admit, hurt.

He had managed to get away leaving you, Steve and your new friend Sam chasing dead end leads. After a while Steve had gone back to doing stuff with the Avengers but you and Sam kept working on tracking down Bucky.

It had become your whole life but you had to find him, there was no way in hell you were going to let him slip through your fingers this time. Two years later you tracked him down to Romania, you went on your own without telling anyone. More people would just freak him out.

You found the apartment he had been staying at and broke in, he wasn’t there yet so you decided to hang around. He had pots and cutlery, some furniture and you realised he had made a little home for himself. You smiled sadly but instantly went on alert when you heard the door click.

Bucky froze when he saw you in his apartment, he didn’t have a gun but he was ready to attack. You held your hands up, “Bucky it’s me, do you remember me?” you asked softly.

Bucky looked over and scanned your features, you were familiar but he couldn’t place you. Slowly, he shook his head.

“I’m Y/N Rogers.”

“Steve’s sister,” Bucky mumbled.

“Yes!” you said excitedly.

“I read about you in a museum,” he explained, “You look different.”

“Those pictures are of me 6 years younger, a lot’s changed.”

“Are you on your own?”

“Yes,” you told him without skipping a beat. He still looked uneasy, “Pinky promise,” you insisted and slowly he relaxed his guard.

You explained that you weren’t here to harm him, you were here to help. “There are others that are going to want to hurt you but you have to trust that I’m not one of them,” you told him honestly.

That worked until suddenly you heard crashing, “It appears my agency decided to trace me,” you said through gritted teeth. “Go out the window, I’ll hold them off,” you told him. He hesitated before doing as you said as police crashed through the apartment.

* * *

Truth was, Bucky did remember you. When he had gone to the Smithsonian he had seen numerous pictures of what he looked like before, videos of him and the man from the bridge, Steve, laughing together. The one thing that stood out was the girl in almost all of the pictures who was smiling and laughing at him.

When he had seen you in his apartment he hadn’t realised it was you but when he did he saw it was you. For the past two years he had been writing down everything he could remember and you had popped up a fair few times but you had been a lot younger and more plain looking in his memories.

Now he was captivated by you, you exuded confidence and he knew that you genuinely cared about him for some reason despite the fact that you had to have known about everything bad he had done.

* * *

**2018**

After everything that went down with the accords, Bucky knew it was best to freeze himself, after a year the scientists in Wakanda realised that there wasn’t a single process to undo what hydra had done and would instead require long term therapy to disassociate from the trigger words.

When they unfroze him once again you had been by his side through it all. You, him, Steve and Sam all became a team to hunt down any remaining hydra bases and were very effective at what you did. Bucky was infatuated by you, you were so different than what he remembered but you were still you at the same time.

All of you were currently in the middle of a mission to take down a hydra base that turned out to be more heavily guarded than your lead had let on. Hydra agents were coming at you from every angle, Sam and Steve were elsewhere in the compound and you and Bucky were fighting back to back as swarms of agents rushed at you.

You managed to take down all the agents on your side and turned to help Bucky. As you turned you saw he was fighting off two agents and a third was holding up a gun that he didn’t see. “No,” you yelled and pushed Bucky out of the way as the agent fired.

Bucky was quick to shoot the remaining agents but it was too late, the bullet had already ripped through your stomach and was gushing blood. “No, no, no,” Bucky breathed and dropped to his knees to pull you into his lap.

He pushed down on the wound with his metal hand and you gripped his flesh hand tightly, “Why did you do that?” he demanded as his eyes filled with tears.

“You didn’t see the guy and you don’t deserve to die,” you explained simply, wincing in pain.

“You don’t deserve to die either,” he cried.

You smiled up at him, “Don’t worry Buck, I’ll be alright,” you reassured as your eyes closed.

“No, don’t,” Bucky shook you frantically and you used all your efforts to open your eyes. “Don’t go to sleep. You have to hold on, Y/N. I can’t lose you, I love you.”

You smiled softly, “I love you, too, Bucky,” you whispered and closed your eyes once more.

* * *

The first thing you heard was beeping, then muffled voices. Slowly you opened your eyes, you were in a hospital room. Everything came back to you and you remembered getting shot in the stomach, why were you here?

You looked to your left to see Bucky slouched in a seat asleep, then to your left to see two nurses. “Oh Miss. Rogers, you’re awake. How are you feeling?” she asked sweetly.

“Fine, I guess,” you groaned, pushing yourself up into a sitting position. “How long was I out?”

“A few weeks,” the nurse said without batting an eyelid.

“A few weeks!” you exclaimed loudly, startling the nurses and waking up Bucky.

Bucky took a moment to realise that you were sitting up, “Y/N, you’re awake.”

“We’ll leave you two alone,” the other nurse said and they made a hasty exit.

“Hey, Buck,” you said softly, “How long have you been here?”

“Since you came here,” he admitted.

“You haven’t been home?”

Bucky shook his head, “I wasn’t going to leave you. Not when you could die any moment.”

You smiled, “I’m tougher than you give me credit for.”

Bucky laughed, “Yeah, you are,” he agreed. “I was worried about you. So was Steve and Sam but I sent them home,” he told you.

You bit your lip and paused for a moment, “Did you mean it?”

“Mean what?” Bucky asked confused.

“When you said you loved me?” you asked quietly, looking at your hands in your lap.

Bucky took your hand in his, prompting you took look at him, “Every word,” he said sincerely.

You smiled shyly and blushed for the first time in years, squeezing his hand. “Did you mean it?” Bucky asked suddenly self conscious.

“Buck I loved you since I was 17,” you rolled your eyes fondly.

He seemed a little taken aback, “W-wh–really?”

You laughed, “Obviously. Dork.”

“I didn’t realise,” he said softly.

“I know, it’s okay,” you shrugged. “I’m fine with us being here and now, not back then. The only thing wrong here is that I had to get shot for you to admit it but I’m willing to move past that,” you teased. Bucky laughed and you joined in, wincing when it pulled at the wound in your stomach.

“You should rest up,” Buck advised, moving to help you lie back down.

You shifted and got as comfy as you could in the hospital bed. “Want me to stay?” Bucky asked quietly.

You shook your head, “No, go take care of yourself. Go home and shower, eat, sleep. I’ll be fine on my own.”

“You sure?” Bucky seemed reluctant to leave.

“Yes, I’m sure. Go,” you said pushing on him lightly.

Bucky leaned down to kiss your forehead, “I’ll be back soon. I love you, Y/N,” he whispered.

“Love you, too, Bucky,” you smiled up at him and closed your eyes to sleep when you heard his footsteps get further and further away. There was no way you would go back to the 40s if you could, not for the world.


End file.
